


Teddy Bear

by Aithilin



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Bittersweet, Childhood, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-02 21:19:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11517687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin
Summary: Gladio still recalls the first gift he ever gave Noct.





	Teddy Bear

The day Gladiolus was first brought to the Citadel, he was too young to know it. He was too young to know that he was meeting the King of Lucis, that he was to be one of the few granted permission into the private apartments of the royal family. And he was far too young to keep that memory close.

The first time Gladio ever saw the inside of the royal heart of the Crown City, he was simply an infant being shown off by a proud father. There was fussing, and cooing, and crying.there were warm arms and strong hands to hold him, and a gathering of his father’s closest friends. 

The first time he was in the Citadel and remembered the visit, Gladio was four. And he has insisted on coming to the prince’s birthday with a gift. 

The birthday was a small affair; the recent loss of the queen overshadowing the first year of the prince’s life. At least to the media. The headlines from the day— archived as all newsprint was— had told of Noctis’ first birthday as if it was some tragedy. Gladio may not have known it at the time, but he remembered his father’s frustration, his anger, at each early birthdate of the prince, until the headlines finally celebrated the young life rather than mourned the queen. 

Gladio had only understood that the prince didn't have a mother now. And he remembered thinking that wasn't very fair. 

He remembered being four and carrying a teddy bear for the prince. He remembered the long hallways and the bright nursery, and greeting his father’s friend with a smile and hug before asking if he could see Noctis. 

There was a picture, somewhere, of that first meeting. One on his father’s desk, he knew. 

And when he was eleven and back from his education at the academy— when he was a proper cadet in the Crownsguard and he had made his choice to serve faithfully as his father did— Gladio would be nervous about meeting the young prince again. It didn't matter how many times he was told that he had met Noctis before, or how his family reassured and insisted that the prince was a boy just like him. It didn't matter that the prince now had a companion shadowing him, or was growing up to be friendly. Gladio was nervous. 

He still remembered that meeting later, with more clarity than the first, because the prince had smiled and laughed, and asked if he would be going outside of the city on the upcoming trip to a beach too. He still remembered the way Noctis took to him so easily, as his father said, and had ignored the cadet uniform and propriety to drag a new friend through the halls on an adventure. He still remembered thinking that he could be like his father, and he could protect this boy. 

He remembered thinking that he had wanted to protect Noct— to serve as Shield— even as news hit home that the prince might die from wounds sustained outside of the Wall. 

“You should get rid of this old thing,” Gladio would say years later as he helped Noct pack up keepsakes for a new apartment outside of the Citadel walls. He would hold the tattered, well loved teddy bear and remember carrying it tightly through the halls. He would remember the way it had watched from high shelves as they grew up. As Noct teased him for his vows as Shield, and he teased his prince like a brother. 

And Noct would pluck it from his hands and toss it into a box to move. “Why? Embarrassed at your gift now?”

“Think a king needs a toy bear?”

“Probably not, but I'm keeping it. A reminder you weren't always just the muscle around here. It's good luck.”

“Right, sure. I guess I'm carrying all this?”

“You know it.”

Eventually the toy would be lost. Either in the years of sorting through things Noct would want to keep, or through the nature of growing up just that much more. Or it may have been lost in the fires that had razed the city as it broke under treachery. Gladio never knew. 

He only really remembered it when he found a little teddy bear in a shop in Lestallum, years after the return of the sun. He would only think of that small bear clutched so often in a prince’s hands when the light his the shop window the right way, and he'd stop. He didn't know why, he had passed the window thousands of time since the sun rose again, but a quick check of the date would drive him inside to buy the toy that the light had made seem so much more important for a moment. 

He'd only think of the old toy bear he had given to a motherless prince when he presented the toy to his own child, and pick it up from gardens and hallways at bedtimes. He'd remember the smile of his young prince and the way his friend had insisted on keeping such a sentimental thing. 

And when his own child played and held the toy close as Iris told new stories of terrifying beasts skulking around farms, Gladio would smile and offer a small “thanks, Noct.”


End file.
